ℂ𝕃𝕆𝕎ℕ| Kaz Brekker

Old Man

No proof - one touch

but you felt - enough

~Taylor Swift~

𝔼𝕧𝕚𝕝𝕪𝕟𝕟 ℙ𝕚𝕖𝕤𝕥

That night no one slept well, with the unwavering feeling of dread that filled the room to the physical pain we all felt after the events of today. My side was cramping up all night and at that point I really didn't have a reason to go to sleep, we had to wake up early anyway. So I sat there for a while, fixing my clothes and sharpening mine and Inej's weapons. Very quickly I noticed I was coughing up bits of blood and soon my face and lips were flush. The warm feeling spread through my cheeks as I kept up the coughing fits, praying I wouldn't wake anyone.

I washed my face and fixed my hair in a shard of a mirror I found, while I still looked quite horrible, it was better. Looking at myself a weird feeling of self conciseness waved over me, my eye bags were dark and I had a number of bumps and bruises, along with many other imperfections my mind pointed out to me.

When someone finally awoke I was sitting in a ball in front of the mirror with a deep frown etched into my face. I hadn't noticed till a hand tapped on my shoulder and I almost shrieked. Thankfully it was just Inej and her tendency to wake up insanely early, even when we already had to be up early.

"Wasn't expecting you to be awake before me, or anyone for that matter." She offered a smile.

I shrugged, "guess your weird habits rubbed off on me," I lied, obviously you'd have to threaten me over a pit of acid to get me to wake up this early, I just never went to sleep.

"Okay well, lets pack up before the other two wake up."

I nodded and pulled my stuff together, little as that may be. I helped Inej tie her hair up, which I was so excited to do, her hair was beautiful. When the boys were finally awake, we were basically ready to go.

My mind was on a million different things, so when I finally found us in front of the fold, I'd barely remember how we'd gotten there, honestly I think I may have fallen asleep in the carriage. Being worried was an understatement, I mean I've said a million times I trust Kaz, but with the old Shithead's death machine, I wasn't so sure.

There were guards lining the fold, "how many are there?" Inej asked.

"two," Kaz replied quickly. "At some point one of them will have to go tell a superior what they've found. We'll go in then."

"Not to be that person Kaz," Jesper frowned, " but are you sure you can drive that thing?"

I nodded, "you know, that's a great point, why don't we just-"

"On the way to Kribirsk, while you two were busy loosing it, hugging that goat, bait-" Kaz glared at us.

"Milo! His name is Milo!" Jesper whined.

"-I was memorizing Arken's timings."

"Not to gang up on you, but Jes has a point, I mean you do remember the God fucked ride getting here don't you?" I frowned. "No one would blame you for miss counting."

He looked at me funny for a moment, "Jes?"

Jesper grinned, "it's old Ravkan for friendship."

I shoved him lightly, "oh no it is not."

Kaz shook his head, "trust me, Arken and I think alike."

I cringed, "Oh never say that-" without another moment, the whole thing blew up. I paused and looked between everyone as we watched the debris go flying. "Um, is it... maybe a little to early to appreciate the irony?" When Kaz didn't meet my eyes I nodded and took the loss, Jesper shrugged at me and mouthed, 'maybe a bit.'